Keith Jardine says he's fighting Brandon Vera at UFC 89

http://mmajunkie.comKeith Jardine (13-4-1 MMA, 5-3 UFC) will look to rebound from his recent loss to Wanderlei Silva when he meets Brandon Vera (9-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) at UFC 89, an event that takes place Oct. 18 at The NIA in Birmingham, England.

Jardine today announced the fight on an Albuquerque radio show.

The light heavyweight bout will likely end up on the night’s main card, which currently features a headline bout between Michael Bisping and Chris Leben.

However, the UFC has yet to announce the fight.

Jardine most recently suffered a stunning, 36-second knockout to Wanderlei Silva at UFC 84. The loss came right after the biggest win of his career — a split-decision victory over Chuck Liddell in September 2007.

With a May 2007 loss to Houston Alexander, the Team Jackson fight has now lost two of his past three fights — the first such stretch of his seven-year career.

Vera, meanwhile, will look to shake a recent three-fight funk. After a unanimous-decision loss to Tim Sylvia at UFC 77, Vera then suffered a first-round TKO to Fabricio Werdum at UFC 85. He then decided to drop to 205 pounds, and though he scored a unanimous-decision victory over UFC newcomer Reese Andy at this past weekend’s UFC Fight Night 14, the performance was flat and heavily criticized.

The fight with Jardine is essentially a must-win for Vera, a former top heavyweight contender who had, at one time, been promised a title shot with then-champ Tim Sylvia, but a feud with his manager kept the fight from happening. Since returning from that year-long layoff, Vera — who began his UFC career with four consecutive stoppage victories — has posted three lackluster performances.

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